Republican presidential hopeful and US Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas)
has advocated "carpet bombing" ISIS "into oblivion" to destroy
the terrorist group. GOP rival Donald Trump has
made similar comments, though a bit more colorfully.

But experts have cast doubt on this approach, saying it likely
wouldn't prove effective.

"You have to be deliberately ignorant of the nature of ISIS …
[and] of the limits of air power to advocate carpet bombing,"
Christopher Harmer, a former US Navy officer and currently a
senior naval analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, told
Business Insider.

He added: "People who use that terminology don't understand ISIS
and they don't understand warfare."

ISIS (also known as the Islamic State, ISIL, and Daesh) has
adapted to survive while the US and other countries conduct
airstrikes over the territory it holds in Iraq and Syria.

Harmer also noted that carpet bombing in Iraq and Syria could
actually end up helping ISIS. If American bombs kill innocent
civilians, ISIS could use it to lure in new recruits because it
would play into their narrative that the West is at war with
Muslims in general rather than ISIS specifically.

"We could go kill every ISIS fighter in Raqqa [Syria] as long as
we kill all the civilians, which makes everything worse because
it confirms the propaganda of ISIS that Americans hate Muslims,"
Harmer said.

"If we go in and start carpet bombing, [ISIS] is going to get a
lot more support than they had before, so it's counterproductive
to our interests."

In the Tuesday-night CNN debate, Cruz clarified that when he
suggested carpet bombing ISIS, he meant that he would target ISIS
positions rather than cities ISIS occupies.

"The object isn't to level a city," Cruz said. "The object is to
kill the ISIS terrorists."

But experts say this logic is flawed by its perceived simplicity.
It's part of ISIS' strategy to blend into the civilian
populations it controls, making it difficult for its enemies to
distinguish between militants and ordinary citizens.

"Carpet bombing only works with armies out in the open, but those
days are kind of gone now. They're not doing that anymore,"
Michael Pregent, a former US Army intelligence officer and
adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute, told Business Insider.

"... With Russia starting to increase airstrikes and with our
bombing campaign in Iraq, you see ISIS melt into the population
to ensure that if they’re bombed there will be collateral
damage."

Harmer agreed with that sentiment.

"There's no such thing as carpet bombing an ISIS position," he
said.

Carpet-bombing might be useful in some instances, however,
according to Michael Knights, an analyst at the Washington
Institute for Near East Policy who specializes in Iraqi military
and security affairs.

"There's an argument for carpet bombing appropriate military
targets partly for the showmanship: it shows our allies (and
enemies) the extent of US military power in a format they
understand and remember," Knights told Business Insider in an
email.

"Big explosions, rolling thunder. The precise 'plinking' [of
bombs] often leaves an underwhelming impression even if it is
more efficient and effective."